Colorful facades of houses alongside river Neckar in Tübingen, Germany (dudlajzov (123RF))

Less than 40 minutes from USAG Stuttgart is the small city of Tübingen. Filled with beautiful architecture and quaint strollable streets, it has its own castle filled with history and museums plus plenty of places to eat. Tübingen is big enough that there are tons of things for everyone to do, but it is small enough to not feel overwhelming or tiring.

Tübingen market square filled with stall (Tamala Malerk)

Unlike Burg Hohenzollern, which was a 30-minute up-hill-the-entire-way walk, Schloss Hohentübingen is easy to get to by foot from the city center. The palace is filled with ancient artifacts dating back tens of thousands of years: small animal sculptures, fractured pieces of old flutes, Egyptian artifacts and jewelry. Science fans will love the castle laboratory where you can learn about 19th-century discoveries and enjoy the interactive exhibit using your smartphone as a microscope. You can visit this palace any day of the week.

Walkable wall area at Schloss Hohentübingen (Tamala Malerk)

My favorite place to go is the Stadtmuseum Tübingen (city museum). The interactive exhibit on the history of the town’s market square is fun and fascinating, especially with the market happening almost right outside the door. I love the exhibits on shadow theater (no German language skills required to enjoy) and the portrait series by Wilhem F. Gugel. Entrance to the museum is free and saved us from being rained on when an afternoon storm appeared a couple of hours earlier than expected.

Entrance photo to Gugel photo exhibit (Stadtmuseum Tübingen )

For some pop culture fun, Fantasy Empire has a large collection of new manga to purchase as well as enough collectibles to make me grateful that I only have two arms to carry things out of the store. As I walked around, I saw their gaming area in the back where a couple of people were playing a tabletop game. Kino Blaue Brücke offers occasional showings in English (unfortunately, nothing was playing when I was there).

Gasthausbrauerei Neckarmüller provides a unique take on Swabian fare. While, yes, they offer a delicious Käsespaetzle that I highly recommend, they also offer a “Swabian-style” Ceasar salad featuring pumpkin seeds and Maultäschen (aka Swabian ravioli pieces), plus a beer goulash. They also have great seating on the river that kept us dry until the heaviest of rain storms hit and we were quickly able to move to indoor seating.

Swabian Ceasar Salad (Tamala Malerk)

The Public Pub & Bar, inside the Ibis Styles Tübingen, fed me the best sweet potato fries I have ever eaten. And, no, I am not exaggerating. They were served with a chicken Ceasar burger which was also quite delectable. They have an extensive “virgin drinks” menu which made watching the Olympics on the big screen TV extra sweet without the need to imbibe alcohol.